Las Vegas or Monterey?

Las Vegas has no coast at all. Swimming means the resort pools, some with wave pools and lazy rivers, or the gravel shore of Boulder Beach at Lake Mead, where the summer water is warm but the desert basin around it has no shade.

Monterey is not a beach destination either, but at least it has real shoreline. Del Monte Beach, the white sand of Carmel and the dunes at Asilomar are lovely for walks and picnics. The cold bay and its rip currents leave the water mostly to kayakers and divers in wetsuits.

Las Vegas offers far more choice. On the Strip there are famous-chef dining rooms, steakhouses and tasting menus, and off it, kilometres of late-opening Sichuan, Korean, Vietnamese and other Asian restaurants line Spring Mountain Road. What it lacks is any cooking rooted in the place.

Monterey has a smaller range, but its food is local: squid, Dungeness crab and sand dabs from the bay, produce from the Salinas Valley and Pinot Noir from Carmel Valley. The best meals are in the side streets of Old Monterey, in Pacific Grove and in Carmel, rather than on the wharf.

In Las Vegas the replica canals on the Strip, the fountain show and the light canopy over Fremont Street make an entertaining evening. The Neon Museum and the Mob Museum tell the city's short story well, but that is most of what there is.

Monterey has more real history, as the old capital of Spanish and Mexican California. The adobes of the State Historic Park include the Custom House and Colton Hall, where California's first constitution was written, and the Royal Presidio Chapel and the Carmel Mission are close by. Neither town has major museums, but a day of sightseeing goes further in Monterey.

This is the widest gap between the two. Las Vegas goes out around the clock, from dayclub pool parties to DJ residencies in the resort clubs, and the dive bars and cocktail lounges around Fremont Street and the arts district are cheaper.

In Monterey an evening means dinner, then perhaps a beer or a glass of wine on Alvarado Street, and the town is quiet before midnight. Anyone who wants to dance should go elsewhere.

Las Vegas has striking desert within an hour's drive: the sandstone cliffs and climbing of Red Rock Canyon, the flame-coloured rock of Valley of Fire, and cooler pine forest on Mount Charleston. From June to September the heat means getting out at dawn, and you need a car for all of it.

Monterey's outdoors is richer and easier to reach. Whales pass close offshore above the submarine canyon, and otters float in the kelp beside the shoreline trail. Point Lobos and the redwood canyons of Big Sur are a short drive away, and you can kayak or dive straight from town.

From Las Vegas the one classic outing is Hoover Dam combined with Boulder City. The Grand Canyon and Zion trips sold on the Strip are long days out to landscapes rather than to towns.

Monterey has a closer and more varied choice of trips. Carmel-by-the-Sea and Victorian Pacific Grove are almost next door. Carmel Valley's tasting rooms, Steinbeck's Salinas, the mission at San Juan Bautista and the Santa Cruz boardwalk are all within about an hour.

Las Vegas can fill a day or two with children, with an indoor amusement park, a shark aquarium and thrill rides at the top of the tower. Casino floors, adult advertising and the summer heat get in the way of everything else.

Monterey is far easier with children. The Monterey Bay Aquarium alone is worth the trip, and the tide pools at Pacific Grove, the sea lions at the wharf, whale-watching boats and Dennis the Menace Park add to a calm, safe stay, even though the cold sea limits swimming.

In both places walking is harder than it first looks, for different reasons. The 6km Strip in Las Vegas has a monorail and buses that run day and night, but the vast resorts, the footbridges and the summer heat mean most visitors end up in taxis or ride-hailing cars.

Monterey's waterfront is more pleasant on foot or by hired bike, since the flat recreation trail links the wharf, Cannery Row, the aquarium and Pacific Grove. Beyond town, a car is the practical answer in both places, whether you are heading for Red Rock or for Big Sur.

For brands and big malls, Las Vegas wins easily. It has the Roman-themed arcade at Caesars Palace, the Venetian's canal-side shops, the Fashion Show mall and two outlet centres, all open late. There is little made locally to buy, though.

Monterey's own shops are mostly taffy and sea-otter souvenirs. Carmel's galleries and independent boutiques and the antique shops of Pacific Grove offer the kind of individual browsing that Las Vegas lacks.

Neither town is cheap, but Las Vegas gives you more ways to save. Hotel rooms from Sunday to Thursday can be good value, especially downtown, and eating in Chinatown or the suburbs costs far less than on the Strip. Weekends, resort fees, shows and clubs push the costs back up.

Monterey has fewer ways around its prices. Peninsula hotels and Carmel restaurants are priced for the Californian weekend market. Savings come from the motels in Seaside or Marina, from visiting in winter, and from free pleasures such as the coastal trail and the tide pools.

Shows are one of the main reasons to visit Las Vegas. Permanent resort theatres host water-based acrobatics, magicians and comedians, pop and country stars play long residencies, and touring Broadway musicals come to the Smith Center. Dozens of shows play every night.

Monterey's strengths are seasonal and mostly musical. The Monterey Jazz Festival has been held every September since 1958, and in summer there is the Carmel Bach Festival and plays at the open-air Forest Theater. Outside those weeks there is little on.

Here the two are broadly level, but rest comes in different forms. Las Vegas offers huge resort spas with thermal circuits, saunas and salt rooms, open to non-guests for a day fee, in a city that is designed to keep you awake.

Monterey has fewer spas but a slower pace: fog lifting off the bay in the morning, evening walks along the shore in Pacific Grove, and resort spas among the vineyards of Carmel Valley. Visited midweek, it is the more naturally restful of the two.